Dancing at a Funeral

Looks like black
fabric moving gently
looks like elderly women with
hard earned wrinkles keeping regal
posture and hugging tears
in their eyes
and men, in suits, stiffly holding
themselves onto their
partner
dancing at a funeral looks
like a rebellion
against death

Young people hugging, holding
closer
younger people standing on the feet
of middle-aged men
little girls letting their feet be
carried on men's dress shoes
with vigor
with laughter
with the confusion that life is still
being lived
like a rebellion
against death

I'm told that Irish funerals are
raucous and drunk and fun with
dancing.  Is that a stereotype?  I
don't know.  I have been
to Irish American funerals
I have seen the living
descend into drunken
comfort
or raise a toast
a salute
to the dead
to death
like a rebellion

Maybe death isn't the enemy.  We
dance because we live and
we die and we dance.  We just
do.  There are legs that
move and there is
fabric that cloaks and
tears that are shed and
alcohol that is drunk and
there are those who live throughout
the every phase of life

there simply is
being
like a rebellion

This poem was inspired by my friend Amy's summer Spirit Writing course.  She's a great midwife to writers & an artful writer herself.  Find her at http://amyleeczadzeck.com/.